Obama ad on Romney: 'Makes you wonder if some years he paid any taxes' (Updated)

By Alexander Burns

07/17/12 06:00 AM EDT

The Obama campaign is ratcheting up its negative messaging on Mitt Romney’s tax returns, asking in a new television ad if Romney “paid any taxes at all” in the years for which he’s declining to release financial information.

The ad is airing in Pennsylvania, according to the Obama camp. Romney is set to campaign in the state today.

“Tax havens, offshore accounts, carried interest: Mitt Romney has used every trick in the book. Romney admits that over the last two years, he’s paid less than 15 percent in taxes on $43 million in income. Makes you wonder if some years he paid any taxes at all,” the ad says. “We don’t know because Romney has released just one full year of his tax returns and won’t release anything before 2010.”

The commercial cuts to a clip of Romney saying in an interview, “You know what, I’ve put out as much as we’re gonna put out,” before the ad closes with a question: “What is Mitt Romney hiding?”

The negative spot distills and magnifies everything about the Obama team’s approach to the Romney taxes so far. The president’s campaign is seizing on the limited public information about Romney’s finances to insinuate that something far more sinister is going on out of sight.

It’s a message that targets Romney’s character with little hard evidence behind its charges. It would also be a message that Romney could rebut more easily if he had a good explanation for why he isn’t releasing the kind of tax information most presidential candidates have shared in the past.

UPDATE: In an email, Romney spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg criticized the White House for its transparency practices without addressing the charges made against her candidate. "President Obama has run one of the least transparent administrations in American history. Whether hiding lobbyists in coffee shops, cutting back-room deals on Obamacare, or concealing the records of 'Fast and Furious,' President Obama's pledge to be transparent has turned out to be just another broken promise," she said.